lain rock, surface dirt and sage-brush. They are not even on the main
gulch. He can buy them for almost nothing. But he does not propose to
sell them for that. He was going to start another group. He ordered me
to make the preliminary surveys. Later I was to plan development work,
to make a showing for his prospectus.

"He knew one would have as much chance digging in a New York back-yard.
I told him so. He has his own expert and, if he didn't tell him so too,
he's a crook.

"Keith said he understood his business and suggested I should attend
strictly to mine. I told him I understood mine and that it included some
personal honor. I was hot. I suggested that wildcat development was not
my business. He called me a quixotic young fool among other things, and
I may have called him a robber. I'm not sure. Anyway, I quit.

"Now, Keith's kept me off from the properties as soon as they have been
fairly started and I have been only consulting engineer for the Molly.
I've been busy on preliminary work. The engineer he brought from New
York has been in actual charge. That was all right. I'm comparatively a
kid. But I know what is going on generally in Casey Town. There have
been no more strikes, for one thing; the discoveries have all been in
the one layer and they are gradually working out.

"Keith would rather develop a good property than a bad one. He has
established himself, has a future to look to. He carries his investing
clients from one proposition to another. He never has to risk his own
money and he has been lucky. He has made money--lots of it. Now then,
why does he start wildcatting?"

"Must need money," suggested Sandy.

"That's my idea. I believe he's been stung somewhere. I know he's been
fooling with oil stocks. His mail's full of it. And I believe he's been
bitten by the other fellow's game instead of sticking to his own."

"It's been done befo'."

"But that isn't all." Westlake brought down his right fist into the palm
of his left hand for emphasis. "This comes from information I can rely
on, from logical deductions of my own, from actual observation of
conditions. Yesterday they closed up the stopes in the Molly. Boarded
'em over. This was done without consulting me. The superintendent talked
some rot about not wishing over-production and pushing development. I
heard of it after I had walked out of Keith's office, resigned, or
fired. You can't issue an order like that without miners talking. I know
most